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Ticket prices were announced for the twelfth incarnation of Ozzy's annual hard rock and metal festival, OzzFest, a few days ago. It was an announcement that rocked the rock world and could point in a new direction for the big summer package tours. The tickets will be free. Yes, you read that right, free.

Ozzy and Sharon Osborne, along with tour promoter Live Nation, made the announcement at Concert Industry Consortium in Los Angeles. It is a startling new direction for concert ticket prices, generally we hear about how much the tickets are going to go up by.

In recent years, it seems some of the big acts are pricing themselves out of reach for the fan, unless they want to take out a second mortgage to see their favorite acts live and in person. I have had friends pay upwards of $300 per ticket for acts like U2, a little out of my price range. That is something of an extreme example, but you get the idea, and I am sure that many of you have similar stories. Instead of the usual price increase announcement, a new model is being forged.

It is thinking outside the box, like this, that can help spark industry wide change. It remains to be seen whether or not this will have that sort of effect, or if the experiment crashes and burns and takes us back to the old model next year.

In my opinion, this is a good and a bad thing. The good thing is it will open up the festival to more fans who may not have had an opportunity to attend one in the past. With the gas and travel expenses on top of the ticket prices, many kids are just not able to stretch their limited budgets, myself included. This experimental model will take the ticket cost out of the equation and may allow us to make the trek.

Article Author: Chris Beaumont

Christopher Beaumont spends much of his time writing about music and movies when he isn't indulging in them. He is always ready to talk about his favorite form of entertainment and offer up recommendations. Follow: Twitter and Tumblr. Visit: Critical Outcast. …

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